While negotiations between the US and Iran to end the three-month-old conflict continue, US forces reported launching new strikes against military targets in southern Iran overnight. US President Donald Trump stated that talks were progressing well but threatened further attacks should they fail. 'The situation in the Middle East remains complex and convoluted', said Andreas Lipkow, chief analyst at broker CMC Markets. 'There is little opportunity for investors to reliably forecast the future course of events.' IG analyst Christian Henke attributed the absence of a broader sell-off to technical chart factors.
Regarding individual stocks, negative analyst commentary weighed on several companies. Shares of Merck, Wacker Chemie, Grand City Properties, and Lufthansa slipped between 1 and 2.5 percent following downgrades.
(Report by Sanne Schimanski. For inquiries, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and economics) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for corporate and markets).)
